EDITORIAL: Albany leans on 'Pseudo Democracy' for gun laws

Opponents of the state's new gun laws raise some valid points about the sloppy workmanship in the NY SAFE bills that were rushed through the Legislature after the Sandy Hook massacre.

Gun control is an issue that affects everyone, whether or not they own firearms. All New Yorkers deserve their say before such an important bill becomes law.

Advocates for gun rights complain the legislation was secretly written in a back room and, then, rushed to the Legislature, where lawmakers were told to vote without reflection or deliberation.

That's a practice that is by no means new and by no means peculiar to gun legislation. Many news organizations have railed against this sad practice for years.

It is a bad way of doing things that often leads to bad laws. It's certainly not what we all learned in middle school civics class during the "How a bill becomes law" unit.

This instance was sloppier and uglier than most, in part because of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's transparently disingenuous use of a "message of necessity," which declared an emergency so the Legislature needn't let the legislation lay on the table for several days for consideration.

The real reason for the rush was political expedience, to avoid public input and criticism.

That really is just standard operating procedure in Albany World. In New York, this is how most bills become law.

Many politicians have spoken out for reform of legislative procedure, but, when elected to office, have simply become one of the good ol' boys.

Perhaps the state Regents should revise the civics curriculum. While it's still important to cover unicameral and bicameral legislatures, for instance, New York's three-men-in-a-room -- and the new four-men-in-a-room variant -- deserve their own textbook chapter.

Title this chapter "Pseudo Democracy" and place it directly after a chapter on how lobbyists, campaign contributions and gerrymandering have undercut the voters' control over the people's business.

Or New Yorkers could reform the state Legislature so it operates in a way all middle schoolers know is right.